evil; and, as such, they resolved upon the journey to Bayonne. On their arrival, the Prince, then King, was unexpectedly apprised that his father had protested against his act of abdication. Having accepted the crown only under the impression that the abdication was voluntary, he was no sooner informed of such a protest than his filial duty instantly determined him to give back the throne. But a short time after, the King his father abdicated it in his own name, and that of his whole race, in favour of the Emperor of the French, in order that the Emperor, consulting the good of the nation, should determine the person and race which should hereafter occupy it. In this state of things, considering that any attempt of the Spaniards for the maintenance of their rights could tend only to make streams of blood flow, and to render certain the loss of at least a great part of her provinces, and all her colonies: ... being further convinced, that the most effectual means of preventing these evils was, that their royal highnesses, for themselves, and all connected with them, should assent to the renunciation; taking also into consideration, that the Emperor engaged, in this case, to maintain the independence and integrity of the Spanish monarchy, and its colonies, without retaining the smallest of its dominions for himself, or separating any part from the whole; that he engaged to maintain the unity of the Catholic religion, the security of property, and the continuance of the existing laws and usages which have for so long a time preserved the power and honour of the Spanish nation ... they conceived that they were affording the most undoubted proof of their affection towards it, by sacrificing their individual and personal interests for the benefit of that nation, and by this instrument assenting, as they already had assented in a particular treaty, to the renunciation of all their rights to the throne.... They accordingly released the Spaniards from all their duties in this respect, and exhorted them to consult the interest of their country, by conducting themselves peaceably, and by looking for their happiness to the power and wise arrangements of the Emperor Napoleon.... The Spaniards might assure themselves that, by their zeal to conform to those arrangements, they would give their Prince and the two Infantes the strongest proof of loyalty, in like manner as their royal highnesses gave them the greatest example of paternal affection, by renouncing their rights, and sacrificing their own interests for the happiness of the Spaniards, the sole object of their wishes.” ♦JOSEPH BUONAPARTE CHOSEN BY HIS BROTHER FOR KING OF SPAIN.♦